Black and White
by UnKnownSalvation
Summary: When there is light, there is darkness. Everyone knows this. Even the miraculous have this with the Ladybug and Black Cat. But why don't the others have opposites? Why is there only light? Well here's the rub. They exist… They always have. And that's not a good thing for Paris. Or anyone who just happened to be moving in as the world comes crashing down.
1. Traffic Safety

_**Black and White**_

 **Ch. 1: Traffic Safety**

It was half past midnight in Paris, the City of Lights as all the daytime workers and kids who had the misfortune of having to prepare for school come next week, all were in their beds, resting the fatigue of a long day away as the city of Paris was turned over to the night owls, the men and women who did what they did best in the dead of night that they were used to and were more comfortable working. The night was still young as the city winded down to more of a quiet setting which was very much welcome to those who would like to just stay in bed and die for about eight hours. One such person, an elderly masseur who had an unusually busy day was finally allowed the rest he craved after finishing cleaning up around his place. For five minutes.

Ring… Ring… Ring… he could here coming from the other room much to his dismay. He would have loved to ignore it but a small prodding on his forehead was forbidding him.

"Master Fu, I believe the phone's ringing," the old man heard a polite and level voice as he opened his eyes, greeted by the sight of a familiar face that he could see even in the low lighting of his bedroom. A small, floating, green tortoise-like being flew in front of his face. The being looked just as tired as he did.

"I've noticed, Wayzz," Master Fu remarked dryly as he pulled himself from his bed and made his way to the phone, floor creaking slightly beneath his feet. He could navigate his home blindfolded if he had to so he didn't bother turning on any of the lights to save his eyes from having to readjust. "Why would anyone call at this time of night?" Fu asked rhetorically. He answered the phone just before it would have stopped ringing. "Hello?"

"Is this Master Fu?" a voice on the other line asked. It sounded like another elderly gentlemen though the accent was Japanese and the English wasn't… really good. The voice was familiar to Fu but he couldn't quite figure out why right away.

"Yes, this is. Might I ask who is calling?" Fu inquired, hoping to understand why someone is trying to contact him in the middle of the night.

"It's me, Makizou," the man on the other end responded, causing Fu to recoil in surprise having to suddenly remember who this Makizou is.

"Makizou… Makizou… Ah yes, Makizou!" Fu exclaimed as he finally remembered who Makizou was but he had a question of his own that came with it, "What's going on? You haven't talked to me in thirty years."

"I… realize that. I'm going to be in Paris soon and I heard that's where you were currently so I figured I would call and see if you'd want to meet up like old times," Makizou's voice was uneasy, a fact that was not lost on Fu and he had a pretty good idea why that was the case.

"You do know that's forbidden, right? We're to never be close by to one another unless…" Fu began before his voice trailed off and his body filled with dread.

"...Unless it was a dire state of emergency," Makizou finished the sentence for Fu. "And I'm sorry to say that we have reached that state. They're gone," Fu listened to Makizou's explanation before his face changed from one of dread to a more determined face. He knew something bad was going to happen.

"What do you mean 'they're gone'?"

* * *

 **1 week later…**

The final week of vacation came and passed like it didn't even happen. For the school age children of Paris, Monday had come too fast as now they had to spend their time resuming their studies when they'd rather being doing anything else. Some had it bad and others had it worse but at least those guys didn't have to spend their first day of school running away from a possessed crossing guard who could stop people and objects from moving at will like one school did.

"Stop where you are!" A man dressed in a mix of a orange jumpsuit with yellow crossing guard attire over it so he could be easily seen from Mars shouted as a red beam of light blasted out of portable stop sign, hitting a few hapless bystanders who were trying to cross the street to get out of danger. "You do not cross when the crosswalk light is red! You could be run over!" the man shouted, clearly not seeing any problem with putting people in danger to keep them _out_ of danger. While all this was happening, a black-haired girl happened to be noticing the commotion from the other side of the street. The girl was dressed in dark gray blazer with a white shirt decorated with pink and black leaves and a pair of pink jeans and ballet shoes with a light pink purse over her shoulder.

"It's been awhile since Hawk Moth made an akuma," The girl mumbled to herself as she quickly ducked out of sight, clutching her light pink purse as she ducked into an alleyway. She looked to make sure no one was around before opening her purse to let out a little red being with two black spots on the side of it's head and a big one right on it's forehead as well as two hair-thin antenna sticking out the back.

"Time for Ladybug to make an appearance then, Marinette!" the being declared with high-pitched and slightly squeaky voice. Marinette nodded to her friend before standing up.

"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette shouted with a flip of her hair to reveal red earrings, which Tikki was sucked into. Marinette was then transformed as a new red skintight suit with red spots appeared around her body to replace her old outfit with a matching domino mask across her eyes and a yo-yo wrapped around her waist.

"You all will obey the law of Crossguard!" Back with Crazy McStopsign, as he moved from turning people into statues to stopping cars dead in their tracks as they tried to speed out of there like they're being chased by something they wanted no part of… because they were. "There is a school right there! You could hurt a student with your reckless driving!" Then when the drivers tried to get out, he froze them too for good measure though his timing left a lot to be desired as he left them in the middle of the road. As he was aiming down another such victim, he felt something wrap around his hand and throw off his aim. He looked to see a red with black dots yo-yo around his wrist. He followed the cord up to see Ladybug holding his arm away from shooting who he was targeting.

"Ah, Ladybug, I see I've gotten your attention," Crossguard said with a smile as Ladybug rewound her yo-yo back to her hand. "Do you like my work? I'm finally instilling some respect for the rules of the road into these human health hazards."

"By leaving them trapped in the middle of the road?!" The two heard another voice from down the street. Ladybug recognized the voice and who it belonged to. She looked to see a blonde-haired boy with two cat black ears clipped into his hair. He was dressed in a similar skinsuit but his was all black and had a belt around the waist. He was holding a gray metal staff in his right hand. His most striking feature was the eyes beneath his black domino mask, there were exactly like a cat's with large iris and slitted pupils. Ladybug noticed that a lot of people who were in the streets before had been moved. He quickly moved to join up with Ladybug. "Something tells me you need to _stop_ being bad at your job and just _go_ on and surrender before you _cross_ us!"

"Ugh… I see your vacation wasn't spent working on your puns, Cat Noir..." Ladybug groaned at the whirlwind of puns that spewed out of Cat's mouth like slop from a sluice gate.

"Oh come on, you know you love them, LB" Cat said with a wink before turning his attention back to Crossguard who now had a pink butterfly outline around his face before it disappeared.

"I'll be taking your miraculous now!" Crossguard the cross crossing guard shouted as he fired another red beam at the duo which they nimbly dodged before trying to close the gap though that proved difficult when his fire rate made moving in tricky since one shot was game over. Choosing instead not to go all in on the first take, the two had to find cover while they thought of a way to get close.

"It's gotta be in the sign! Got any plans, Bugaboo?" Cat asked as he saw Crossguard leisurely stroll to where they were like he was in no hurry. Ladybug looked around and noticed that not only were the people Cat Noir saved not in the street but they also weren't there at all.

"Cat, where'd the people you saved go?"

"Oh, when I tried to pick them up to get them off the street, they started to move again so they must have legged it out of here. Looks like he can only keep anything still as long as no one touches them," Cat explained as he kept an eye on Crossguard to see how far he was. About thirty feet or so and he'd be right on top of them very soon.

"If one of us can get on the other side of him, we could have one of us draw his fire while the other gets the sign," Ladybug looked to her partner before motioning her head. "Cat!"

"Be my pleasure, my lady," Cat said with a bow before leaping from behind the car to immediately be put under fire, causing Crossguard to forget that Ladybug was also behind that car.

"Let's see what we can use... Lucky Charm!" Ladybug threw her yo-you into the air and after watching hearts spill out, out dropped a ladybug printed mirror. "Okay, a mirror. I can make this work," Ladybug said as she racked her brain to come up with a plan.

"Not only are you a bad crossing guard, you're an even worse shot!" Cat quipped as he dodged blasts of freezing lasers aimed at him while quickly made a half circle around Crossguard so that his back would be to Ladybug. Crossguard got angrier and angrier with Cat before the butterfly outline reappeared for a couple seconds and a surprised Crossguard turned to see Ladybug preparing to take his sign with her yo-yo. He dodged her attempt before turning fire on her, forcing her to put up the mirror for defense which caused it to bounce off but it failed to connect with Crossguard.

"Cataclysm!" Cat Noir exclaimed as he summoned a black orb into his hand before crushing it. He then touched the street, causing it to collapse beneath Crossguard's feet, making it hard to shoot at Ladybug. Cat Noir quickly stepped in to try and take the sign but Crossguard caught him before he could get close, freezing him still.

"Got you, you irritating child!" Crossguard exclaimed in victory. He quickly noticed that Cat was stuck in a frozen car's path and it gave him an evil idea. He flipped the sign around to the green "Go" half and aimed at it. Ladybug, not thinking about it and acting completely on impulse, threw the mirror to intercept the laser, which it did but caused it to bounce off the mirror at a weird angle and just fire aimlessly into space. Undeterred by this turn of events, Crossguard just tried again and this time, it hit its target, causing it to continue moving as it did before, with Cat right in the way.

"CAT NOIR!" Ladybug shouted before a green blur zipped by and tackled Cat Noir out of the way but it ended up catching the feet of the blur and sending a part of his skates into a nearby bush. Ladybug and Crossguard struggled to even process what happened, as did the blur, or more accurately, boy expressed.

"What possessed me to do that?!" The boy shouted. Ladybug, taking the opportunity, quickly smacked Crossguard in the head with her yo-yo and stole the sign in one smooth motion.

"Get out of her you, nasty bug!" She yelled as she quickly broke the sign over her knee, which expelled a small black butterfly out of the ruined remains. "No more evildoing for you, little akuma! Time to de-evilized!" She flicked her finger over her yo-yo, causing it to pop open before spinning it around and catching the akuma. "Gotcha! Bye-bye, little butterfly." Ladybug picked up the mirror and threw it into the air before calling out "Miraculous Ladybug!" From the discarded mirror exploded a swarm of bugs that quickly returned everything to normal.

Cat quickly turned to the boy that saved him who was looking through the bushes. He had brown hair underneath a forest green helmet and was wearing an also forest green windbreaker that had "Dunn Right Gardening" written in a complementary magenta with blue carpenter jeans and a pair of red rollerskates. Though Cat thought the skates were kind of weird looking. They looked like a mixture of sneakers in shape but had rollerblades on the bottom. The wheels looked to be missing from his right skate and were taken off when he tackled him out of the way.

"Need help, hero?" Cat asked with a smile as he walked up. The boy seemed to jump in surprise of Cat's voice. Cat got a good look at his face and figured he had to be about his age.

"Uh… S-sure, thanks. It's a set of red wheels like the others." he said, his voice a bit unsteady from the adrenaline of jumping in front of a car to save someone.

 _'Guess you've got your own set of priorities,'_ Cat remarked in his thoughts that he was a bit eccentric that after what this guy did, his first concern was just tracking the wheels for his skate shoes down.

"Thanks for the help back there. I'd be down to eight lives without the save," Cat patted his savior's shoulder as he looked.

"Well, if we find my wheels, we'll call it square, huh?" Cat looked over and saw the wheels in a bush about five feet down and picked it up. They were all stuck together on a track and looked like they were going to be a pain to repair with the tips connecting to the shoe being completely torn.

"Sounds like a good deal to me," Cat joked as he lobbed the wheels over. The brown-haired boy quickly sat down at folded the still attached wheels back into the sole of the shoe, hiding them with a click sound. He then stood up just the student body of the nearby school came out to celebrate Ladybug and Cat Noir.

"That doesn't look good…" he sighed as he looked at the remains of the wheels. "Thanks for the help!"

"No, thank _you_ for the save. See ya later, hero!" Cat said as he quickly bailed as he ring beeped. After Ladybug did as well, everyone was quickly rushed back inside by the school bell and teachers. Marinette, now out of costume, quickly ran into the same school that she attended. With the akuma now stopped she just had to make sure she wasn't late on the first day. Now that would be embarrassing, she thought. Especially in front of… _him_.

"Sorry I'm late." Marinette sheepishly apologized to her teacher as she walked into homeroom and took a seat next to a red-headed girl who was giving a smirk as she eyed her friend from beyond her glasses.

"Well technically we're all late so I won't hold it against you... _today_." the teacher said with a warm smile that didn't mesh well with what Marinette could only have taken as a threat. She quickly waited for everyone to be seated before continuing. "Before we get started I have some great news for everyone. We have two new foreign students," The class quickly burst to life as everyone quickly began talking about the new info they just here. Marinette felt a soft poke to her arm, drawing her attention to the girl next to her. She was wearing a white, orange, and purple plaid shirt over a white tank top, blue jeans and white sneakers.

"Two new students, can you believe that?" The bespectacled girl next to her asked.

"I know, Alya, I wonder what kind of people they are," Marinette said with an excited giggle.

"Let's hope we don't get another 'Chloe'. I don't know how any of us would cope with that."

"Don't jinx it, please. For all our sakes," A boy with a red baseball cap and orange headphones joked from in front of them.

"Don't you think you're being a little paranoid, Nino," To Nino's right, sat a blonde haired boy with a white button up shirt that was left unbuttoned and a black shirt with five stripes going across his chest. He seemed like he didn't want his friend to start worrying over something that might not be worth worrying over.

"Probably, Adrian, probably, but this is a case where it is perfectly acceptable to be paranoid. It could be the difference between a year with one Chloe and one with with up to three of them. That's some horror movie stuff right there!"

"Now, now everyone, please be quiet as I bring them in." She motioned for someone on the other side of the doorway to come in. The first one was a girl wearing a purple shirt with a bird flying near her breast, blue jeans and black sneakers. Her long, black hair was held back in a knot by a small, batwing hairpin while a few strands fell across her shoulders. She was definitely asian and by the semi-unhappy face she had, she didn't look like an easygoing person.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to the class, dear?" The teacher asked. The girl's face softened in a small smile, almost like she was putting on a mask.

"My name is Amara Akibara, and it's nice to meet all of you. I'm am from Nara, Nara, Japan," she explained as she bowed toward the class. Her smile disappeared immediately after. The teacher motioned for the other student to come in.

The other one, however, everyone in the room immediately recognized as the boy from earlier who came out of nowhere to help Cat Noir from becoming road kill. He came in with a much more genuine smile then Amara's but he was clearly bashful about being put in front of everyone who saw what he had did.

"Hello, everyone! My name is Adam Dunn, and I'm from Warren, Michigan, United States. Nice to meet all of you. I'll try not to cause too much trouble… though it might be a bit late for that."

* * *

 **A/N: Speaking of hellos, my name is UnKnownSalvation but you can call me Sal for short. I've been on hiatus recently due to just all the things I want to do but don't have the time but the writing urge is back and now I'm feeling like writing a story that I've had on the back burner for a while. I got into Ladybug and Cat Noir after watching the show back in February although I have no recollection of how I found it. I just… did though surfing the web one day and BAM! There it is. So while I was busy with another story, I was also making a basic story development page for this story but I only recently got the urge to actually start it after watching the first season again.**

 **Also, in the help department, is anyone here an artist that can make me a cover for this story? If not, I do have a backup plan so it's not a big issue or anything. Also maybe an assistant in proofreading this. My normal proofreader doesn't watch this show so he wouldn't be good for fact checking so I'm kinda on my own to spot my own errors and that's a crapshoot if I ever saw it. I can only remember so much.**

 **As you no doubt noticed by now, I'm basing this off the english version since that was the version I've seen (I.E. why the text was commenting on Makizou's less than stellar English instead of French). I'd watch the french version with subtitles but frankly, once you see one version, watching another is… surreal. Same face, different voice. It's weird and I'd probably just get distracted and miss details that would be useful.**

 **This story is one-hundred percent AU past season 1 and will not include any elements from season 2 onwards (if this story lasts that long for me to learn of said elements) unless I can fit them in semi-seamlessly and it doesn't get too cluttered (for instance, I haven't used what would be the obvious follow-up to the end of season 1 but I will have it. Just not right off the bat because I have a lot of things to establish first and foremost). And even then that might not be avoidable considering all the things I have planned.**

 **If you're interested in any of the background facts of one of the OCs, feel free to ask though few of them have any real good explanations that are interesting.**

 **Thank you for reading my long author's note but it's just something I felt like I had to say or something. Till next time, Sal out!**


	2. Meet&Greet

**Ch. 2: Meet &Greet **

_'This is a surprise,'_ Adrien thought as he stared at the guy who not ten minutes ago saved him from being road pizza. Everyone else in the room began whispering amongst themselves about Adam, wondering various things about him but most just defaulted to wondering if he was even sane as he seemed more than ready to jump into danger, something Adrien was beginning to think himself. _'If that car had hit me and only me, I'd probably be put out of commission for only a little while. The miraculous probably would have saved me fine but… he wouldn't have known that...'_

Marinette, behind him was more focused on the girl beside Adam. Amara seemed none too interested in the class but rather the boy next to him. _'If she stares at him any harder, he might catch fire,'_ Marinette mused before simply putting the thought away. She didn't know either of them yet so it's not like she can make judgements. It was making such judgements that led to her hating Adrien at first, something she still sometimes doesn't forgive herself over.

"Alright, class, settle down," the teacher proclaimed. "Now that they've introduced themselves, it's only fitting that the rest of us do the same. I'll start," she announced before turning towards the two new students, "My name is Miss Caline Bustier," she smiled before turning to the class, starting with Adrien.

"Adrian Agreste, a pleasure," Adrien said, voice calm and level.

"My name's Nino Lahiffe! I'm a professional DJ," Nino was less so as he added a bit more energy to his introduction.

"The word 'professional' should not be used in the same context as you, Nino," Alya said through the hand covering her face. She put it down before refocusing on Adam and Amara. " "Name's Alya Cesaire," Alya then motioned to the girl next to her who jumped a bit when she realized it was her turn. Her thoughts were a bit more preoccupied.

"My name's Marinette Dupain-Cheng. It's nice to meet you both," Marinette said as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. The class continued to introduce themselves and it went off smoothly as most of the class was friendly to the two.

The key word being "most".

The last person in the class was a blue-eyed blonde with her hair in a ponytail with makeup so heavy that even Adam could see it and he was about ten feet away. Her outfit was just as extravagant: White rimmed sunglasses sat on the top of her head, a dark gold sphere charm and chain around her neck, a white shirt covered by an expensive yellow jacket that seemed to scream 'Look at me!" from how bright it was. White jean capris with diamond shaped studs and white dress shoes completed the too bright look. Her expression also wasn't that induced good feelings. She seemed to have a look of disinterest and maybe even a bit of disgust as she looked at the two. There was an audible silence in the room before she finally spoke.

"I am Chloe Bourgeois," she said, voice haughty with pride which made the stomachs of half the room turn. Adam looked at the other students and could only chuckle at the number of classmates that had looks that could only be described as "seething exasperation". "Did I say something funny?" Chloe immediately responded to Adam's chuckle. Adam scratched the back of his head before turning to Chloe.

"Oh it's nothing. I found everyone else's reactions to your introduction funny, that's all."

"What do you mean? Everyone here loves me," Adam turned to everyone else and their faces told more than any words could. They all looked like they wanted desperately to groan from the amount of nonsense coming out of her mouth.

"You're pretty quick to defend then," Adam countered back with a calm tone, surprising most of the class. It was rare that anyone stood up to Chloe directly but Marinette and Alya seemed to be getting no small amount of enjoyment from the little skirmish. Though Miss Bustier did not.

"Alright, that's enough," Miss Bustier interrupted, preventing things from escalating. "We have class to get on with. Why don't you two take a seat?" Adam and Amara looked around for empty seats and found two. Adam walked up to an empty spot next to clearly the biggest guy in the room. His attire was mostly black with his t-shirt and slacks with the only exceptions being the white crossing bones on his shirt and his khaki-colored work boots. His hair was black with a little tuff in the front that was dyed blonde. He looked… mean.

"Ivan, right?" Adam asked the grouchy-looking teen who nodded. "May I?" He scooched over, trying to give as much room as he could without falling out of the seat, allowing Adam to sit down. _'Well at least he's not going to eat me though I doubt I'll be making friends with him today.'_

Amara took the only remaining seat in the class next to a redheaded boy whose hair partially obscured his eyes. He was almost taken aback that she was sitting next to him and tried as much as he could not to make eye contact. Amara turned to look at the clearly nervous boy next to him but couldn't see all of him with him turned away like he was. He was wearing a gray dress jacket with purple pants and gray shoes. Amara thought of something to say to hopefully calm him down.

"It's alright, I'm not going to bite," Amara tried as hard as she could to make that seem friendly but he didn't respond or even look at her so it didn't seem to work.

"Now that everyone has been introduced and is situated, we will begin with a brief overview of what to expect this year," Miss Bustier explained with a smile as she produced a stack of papers from the desk.

* * *

The first half of the school day was uneventful. The class was basically given syllabus after syllabus explain how every class was going to be. How many exams, how the grades were measured, school policy being regurgitated every single time like they had short term memory loss or something. Naturally, everyone was about as interested in it as they were about what phase the moon was in. Waning crescent in case anyone did care. After half the day had gone by it was time for the most wonderful time of the day: Lunch.

"You sure you have to head back home for lunch, man?" Nino asked Adrien as the two headed out towards Adrien's family's limousine. "It be a good chance to get to meet the two new kids."

"I know but Dad said he had something important to discuss regarding my current modeling schedule. Why he didn't just send me a letter or something like normal is beyond me but there you go. Besides, it's not like lunch isn't going to happen tomorrow."

"For all we know, there might not be a tomorrow but I'll give you the dets later since you probably have to model today too." Nino waved bye as his friend went through the car door held open by a bodyguard that seemed like he'd be too big to even drive the freaking thing. Nino walked back inside where he saw a small crowd of fellow students around Adam with most of them trying to talk to him and him desperately trying to get them to tell them nicely to leave him be. They seemed particularly interested in the skates that he looked to be trying to repair if the tools around his broken skate were any indication.

"Look like we've got a new Mr. Popular," Nino heard to his left as he saw Alya and Marinette walking up to him.

"Yeah, I kinda feel bad for him as he clearly doesn't want the attention," Marinette spoke with concern as she saw the scene. Adam looked in distress if his face had anything to say about it.

"Not now anyway. Maybe we should help him?" Nino wondered aloud.

"That seems like it might be best," Alya agreed. She walked over and quickly made herself known. "Alright everyone, take a hike, you're crowding the new kid," Alya demanded because she's Alya dammit and why don't you tell her not to. The crowd quickly dispersed leaving Adam alone with Alya, Nino, and Marinette which he welcomed with a sigh.

"Thank you, but you really didn't have to do that," Adam said as he took a seat in front of his discarded shoe-skate.

"No but I wanted to since you looked like you needed help getting rid of the unwanted attention," Alya said as the three took seats at the table with him.

"Honestly, when I woke up this morning, this is not how I picture today going. I thought it was going to be a lot duller and then everything happened and now I thinking maybe I should head home for lunch," he pondered aloud as he picked up small magnifying glass to see inside the now empty bottom of his shoe.

"Well, don't you worry bout a thing, bro, you've got us with you now and you couldn't ask for better company," Nino said as he placed his arm around Adam's neck, surprising him at the sudden invasion of personal space which Nino quickly realized before backing off and just offering a handshake which Adam returned.

"Well, aren't you the most modest bro here," Adam replied sarcastically, winning a pair of giggles from Alya and Marinette. Marinette's attention was drawn to the shoes Adam was taking a look at. They were much bulkier than normal sneakers and having skates attached was something new. She heard of shoes with wheels on the heels but never across the whole bottom and built into the soles.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is up with those sneakers of yours," Marinette asked, as Adam sighed. _'Oh… maybe he's tired of having to answer that?'_ "You don't have to answer if you don't want to. You probably are getting tired of hearing it," Marinette added quickly.

"A little but I don't mind too much as no doubt everyone's a bit curious," He reached down and pulled off his other shoe before removing the cover of the wheels on the bottom and pulling them out. He then reached into the shoes and without warning, the wheels started moving on their own. "These are electric shoe-skates, patent pending and it's still in the 'what do we call this thing' phase."

"D-did you make those?" Marinette asked as she looked at the whirling wheels spin at a furious pace.

"I wish I was that good but I'm not sure Dad would approve of taking credit from him. No, these were made by him as a side-project in his spare time. He's a high ranking technician working for WTA Industries, a company famous for making strange… things that you never knew you wanted until it was already invented. They make normal stuff too but you don't get known and successful by being normal is what he says."

"So how fast are they?" Alya asked causing Adam to flinch slightly.

"Well... normally, we've had to limit it to about ten kilometers per hour. It's still in the testing phase and we needed to make sure it could handle the stress considering how many small pieces are in here. You can't get them on the market because it's not ready yet."

"Your dad uses you as a test dummy?" Nino inquired, confused why any parent would allow their own children to test what could be dangerous things.

"I get paid a hundred euro a day to be a test dummy," Adam replied back matter-of-factly.

"But 10 kilometers… you were going way faster than that! You wouldn't have made it in time to save Cat Noir," Marinette deduced.

"That's because I turned the limiters off this morning before I left home. I wanted to give it a real stress test. The top speed is actually about fifty kilometers an hour or about thirty miles per hour."

" _Fifty_ kilometers?! That seems really dangerous on unproven equipment," Nino asked incredulously.

"Yeah but before I saved… Cat Noir was it?" Adam asked Nino who nodded, "I hadn't gotten far enough to build up the speed. I got to maybe twenty kilometers per hour at best and that was on an uncrowded sidewalk which at eight in the morning was kind of rare on a business day. The accelerator is also kinda underpowered for what Dad had in mind but it was the best he could do for a motor this small. He still working out the kinks on the other motors he wants to try. But like I said, this is just a side project so it's not likely to hit the production line for another year or two, especially with whatever it is he's got going on now here in France."

"I take it he's the reason you've moved here?" Marinette asked,

"Yeah but it's a bit more complicated than that. I'd go into it but I think you've guys probably don't need me overloading your brains with info after the shoe-skates. Why don't you guys tell me a bit about yourselves so we're not just talking about me?" Adam asked politely, seemingly trying to direct attention off of him. As the three began to give basic info about themselves, unbenounced to them, they were being watched closely from above. By Amara of all people.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he's perfect for the job. I mean, he jumped right in front of that car to save Cat Noir so it's clear he is going to be on our side."

 _"But you realize the risks involved, right. This is the last one I have left. If we lose it… we'd be fighting very long odds. Not to mention what it is I'd be asking of him. This isn't a job so much as a way of life."_

"Yeah, but you know you're in no shape to do it yourself. You were going to have to pass it along someday and do you really think we can be indecisive now? We've already lost the other five and I can't do this by myself. We could always have Fu give him one of his."

 _"Not possible. He says he already has candidates for those,"_ Amara sighed at that but took comfort in the knowledge that at least there would be more help. _"..."_ Silence on the other line for a good minute or so. Amara had to check at one point to make sure he hadn't hung up. _"I'll make the call."_

"ありがとう、お父さん (Thank you, Father). I promise we'll make this work."

 _"For all our sakes, I hope you are right."_

* * *

Meanwhile across town at the Agreste family mansion, Adrien was sitting down eating the remainder of his lunch while waiting for his father to show up. Just as he finished he heard a door to his left open, with a sharp dressed blonde man and a professional looking black-haired woman walking through.

"Hello, Adrien, I have some things I'd like to discuss with you," the man began as the woman took Adrien's empty plates, "Natalie, make sure we're not disturbed." Natalie nodded as she left the room.

"So what was it you needed to discuss with me, Father?" Adrien inquired, perplexed at the situation. _'Or what's so important that you couldn't just send me a note like always?'_ Adrien snarked in his own head.

"We're discussing your modeling schedule for the foreseeable future and it's now that I need to ask, what exactly are your plans for your future?"

 _'Oh… that's why.'_ Adrien thought as his skepticism turned to curiosity, " _My_ plans?" Now all of Adrien's attention was on this. This was the question he never thought he'd hear. His father, who was insanely restricting about Adrien's life was now asking _him_ what he wanted to do with it. Naturally, since he never thought he'd be asked the question, Adrien leaned back into the chair and stared at the table where his food used to be, not even looking at his father who hovered over his shoulder. "I… never really thought about it since you usually take care of that. I honestly didn't think I was ever going to be given a choice."

"I see," Adrien's father walked over to a nearby chair, fixing his red and white tie and white suit before taking a seat himself.

"Why are you asking, Father?"

"I was considering grooming you to take a place in the company." he responded, nearly knocking Adrien out of his chair.

"Wait, as what?"

"It all depends on you. You could stay a model like before, you could try and learn more behind-the-scenes elements like fashion designer, or contracted photographer for example. You could even work to get a spot in the corporate ladder if you wanted it,"

"And… If I didn't want any spot in the company?"

"That's your choice but you won't be able to act on it until you are eighteen and able to live your own life, provided you actually have a plan by then," Mr. Agreste finished, leaving Adrien without an immediate answer.

"I'll give you time to think about it. While you think about it, I'm having Natalie schedule less photo shoots as I wish to make sure your studies are your first priority. You won't have a shoot later today for instance." Adrien turned and looked at his father who quickly responded at the obvious question of "Why?" "Your grades last year were… below expectations and I believe that more time will help remedy that… hopefully. We just contracted a new model a week ago and he'll serve as a suitable substitute for a while. Enough for you to come up with your own ideas for the future," With that, Mr. Agreste stood up and left the room, leaving Adrien alone with his thoughts. Well, not truly alone.

"So, what's your plan?" Adrien heard from his coat pocket. Suddenly, flying out was a pitch black kwami with green cat eyes and ears.

"I… I don't know, Plagg. But he gave me the time to think about it so I'll cross that bridge later. Besides he's right in a way as much as I hate to admit it. I do need to think about life outside of Cat Noir instead of just having them plan that for me and coast through the rest.

"Well, whatever your plan is, just know I'm right with you, provided that there's plenty of camembert along the way," Plagg said as he rubbed his stomach.

"Do you think of anything other than your next meal?" Adrien asked, slightly annoyed by his companions constant hunger for smelly cheese.

"I was thinking of you twenty seconds ago so... yeah about one percent of the time I do think of something else.," Plagg responded, getting a smirk from Adrien as he opened his coat to let him back in and leave for school again.

* * *

After lunch, it was more of the same learning the rules of the year schtick that every other class had up to that point until finally the day of tedium even by school standards was over. Adrien stood at the top of the steps. He was told to call his bodyguard if he wished to go home right away if he didn't have anything going on. He stared at his phone wondering what to do with his day now that dear old dad took the only thing he actually had to do.

While knee deep in contemplation, a familiar arm wrapped it's way around his neck and pulled him close.

"Alright, what's bothering you?" Adrien turned to look at Nino who was now flanked by Adam to his left. "Oh yeah, you didn't really get to talk to him yet, right?" Nino asked as he pointed towards his new classmate.

"Nice to meet you, Adrien. Here's hoping you live up to the glowing praise I got from Nino and Marinette," Adam joked as he offered his hand which Adrien took.

"I'll hate to disappoint but I think Nino might be exaggerating a bit," Adrien replied with a smile. Though he had to wonder what Marinette said about him to. She was always a bit awkward around him.

"Anyway, you got to go to your photo shoot, don't you?"

"Not today actually. Dad's scheduled less photo shoots as he wanted me focus on school for now," Adrien answered, leaving out the more important details as he was still running those through his head.

"Really? Well, then this is perfect. Adam plays video games too so I figure we can go hang at his house for a while," Nino explained excitedly. "Me and you have been the coolest duo for a while and now with this cool cat over here," Nino said as he pulled in Adam as well, "we'll be the coolest _trio_ in Paris!"

"I think I can get on board with that," Adrien agreed. It's not like he had anything better to do and the distraction would help him think about things later since he wouldn't be so worried about it.

"Although I'm not too sure about Nino tugging at my neck so much," Adam piped up, as Nino backed off the both of them.

"Sorry bout that. It's just my boy Adrien here needs more than like three friends."

"Well, they say it's better to have three great friends than twenty okay friends," Adam said as he rubbed the back of his neck. Nino didn't come up with an immediate rebuttal.

"Well he's got you there, Nino. Anyway, Adam, which way's your home?"

As the boys walked away towards Adam's house, Amara watched them carefully, especially Adam as he was the one she had recommended to her father. But before she could do anything…

"Hey girl!" Amara turned around to see Alya and Marinette walk up to her. "Checking out the boys? Be careful, Nino is my man and no one's going to have him but me!" Alya warned playfully. "Oh and Adrien wouldn't be a good idea either as you'd have to fight this girl for him," Alya whispered as she pointed to a now embarrassed Marinette.

"Alya! Don't go blabbing about that to every stranger!" Marinette fumed as her face turned red.

"Don't worry, I'm not interested in dating anyone. Alya and Marinette, right? Did you want something?"

"Well, only to know our newest student, of course!" Alya answered. "We didn't get a chance to meet earlier so I figured since we caught you now, we could just hang out."

"Well, I suppose that would be nice. Where exactly did you have in mind because my home isn't available. We're still painting the walls and it smells pretty bad," Amara explained as she made up the excuse on the spot but it seemed believable enough.

"Oh, Alya, I think I won't join you today. I'm just a bit exhausted and want to just head home," Marinette said as she begun to stretch.

"Well, we could always hang out your house. I'm sure your parents won't mind and it'd give Amara a taste of fresh french baked treats."

"Maybe another time. I'll see you both tomorrow!" Marinette barely gave Alya time to rebuttal before she took of.

"For exhausted, she sure runs fast," Alya sighed before looking at the unflappable Amara who just looked on in silence. "My house sound good?" Amara nodded as the two headed off to Alya's place to hang out.

Marinette continued to hurry home which thankfully for her was just across the street from school so it wasn't too bad. She opened the door to be greeted by the smell of fresh baked breads, pastries, and sweets and the smiling face of her mother. She had hair like Marinette's in color but had her's let down and slightly shorter. She wore a white cheongsam with gold, red, and black designs with periwinkle blue pants and white dress shoes.

"Oh hello, honey, how was your first day back?" she asked Marinette just sort of fell into a hug from her.

"Exhausting and boring if those two words can go together."

"Exhaustingly boring, you say? Well, it's only the first day so I'm sure things will pick up."

"Sabine, can you come help me, dear?" Marionette's dad called behind a nearby screen where they keep the ovens.

"Coming, Thomas! Marinette and I are in the middle of mother/daughter time!" Sabine shouted back.

"I really need the extra set of hands!" Tom yelled back, earning a sigh from Sabine.

"Duty calls. You just get the rest you need and worry about things later," Sabine said as she kissed her daughter's cheek before retreating into the kitchen to help her husband. Marinette decide to take the advice and climbed up to her room before letting out a groan.

"You okay, Marinette?" Marinette heard from her side as Tikki flew in front of her face. Marinette didn't answer right away as she sat in her chair in front of her computer. "It's about what happened to Cat, isn't it?" Marinette nodded before speaking.

"I think I've gotten rusty at being Ladybug. Hawkmoth hadn't made an akuma in months and then suddenly shows up again like nothing happened. What's worse, Cat almost got turned into roadkill if it wasn't for Adam being completely impulsive."

"I think that's the pot calling the kettle black, Marinette," Tikki remarked slyly, earning a glare from the struggling not to smile Marinette. "Besides, thanks to that Adam boy, everything worked out fine so we just need to get you back into fighting shape so it won't happen again!"

"You're right! I shouldn't be worrying about something that didn't happen. I just need to make sure I'm ready for the next one. If I'm just a bit rusty, I'm sure just a bit of practice is all I need," Marinette said as she climbed up to her bed and onto the roof. "Tikki, spots on!" After transforming into Ladybug, she quickly jumped outside and lassoed her yo-yo and swung away to do some practice to get back into proper Ladybug shape.

* * *

Meanwhile, back with boys, who were just coming up to Adam's place. A dark blue three story tall building with a store interior on the first floor and living quarters on the upper floors. But the really interesting part for Adrien was on the roof. They had a greenhouse as well and it seemed to take up most of the roof.

"So, are your parents opening up a store here?" Adrien asked, not quite clued in to anything about Adam beyond what Nino already knew.

"Not exactly. My mother is going to be using the bottom floor for her work when she comes to Paris… eventually," Adam sighed.

"What's your mom do?" Nino asked as she never came up before.

"She's a lawyer though she's finishing up prior obligations and cases in the states before she'll be coming here to learn french law and eventually open up a firm here as well. That's the plan anyway but things could change on a dime," Adam walked up to the door and tried to open it only to find it locked. "What the...?"

"WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!" Suddenly out of nowhere, a gold-yellow dog jumped up to the door window and started to violently bark and looked about ready to eat the boys alive, causing Nino and Adrien to jump back while Adam just looked slightly surprised.

"Geez, Victor, happy to see you too, you rabid animal," Adam snarked dryly before then slamming his hand against the door frame, causing the violent dog to calm down long enough to get a good look at his owner before immediately jumping down and sitting away from the door patiently with his tail wagging. "Meet Victor, a labrador-chow. Loyal and as he was quick to demonstrate, scary to those he doesn't recognize," Adam joked as he looked at his new friends who were holding each other in their arms like they were about to die before quickly breaking apart and clearing their throats, earning a chuckle from Adam. "Also when we get in, stay behind me until I've got a hold of him. He's calm whenever someone he knows is around so he'll be able to sniff you and get to know you as friendly."

Nino and Adrien nodded before they heard the speaker next to the door come to life.

"Password?" A masculine voice came from a speaker next to the door.

"Oh right 'password'," Adam responded with sarcastic air quotes on "password". "The password is "Let your son in before he calls Mom and has her scold you first for not telling him about the security system',"

"...Password accepted, Mr. Killjoy," A quiet beep could be heard from the door before Adam could open it. He turned to look at his new friends who just looked at him with looks of pity and humor.

"Your dad, I take it?" Nino asked up after stifling a chuckle.

"Yeah, he must have finished putting in the security system. Don't know why we need it. Victor seems like all the security we'd need with how he acts around people he doesn't know. Isn't that right, my faithful guard hound?" Adam explains as he vigorously pets Victor who seemed to be enjoying all the attention he was getting. Nino walked up and outstretched his hand for Victor to sniff and received a friendly lick from his spotted tongue. Adrien tried the same thing but Victor seemed a bit confused before looking away back at Adam, which seemed to confuse the boys in turn.

"Well, Victor won't stop everyone and besides we only have the basics put in right now," the voice from earlier spoke from inside the building. The trio turned to see a middle-aged man in a white lab coat that had a few oil spots on it "I still have to add the cameras and the traps and the laser cannons-"

"We are not having lasers!" Adam shouted, exasperated with his father who just smiled. "Mom doesn't want her law firm having lasers shooting at people looking for law support, not blindness!"

"Calm down, son, we don't need the neighbors sending noise complaints again," Adam's father said cheerfully as he walked up to Adrien and Nino. "I see you've already made friends. My name is Dr. Hubert Dunn, inventor of wondrous tech for everyday life and more!" His father said extravagantly as he offered the two boys his hands to shake.

"Nino Lahiffe,"

"Adrien Agreste," the two responded uneasily as they shook his hands.

"Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat about your first day but I have a few things I have to run off to do."

"Work called you in again?"

"Unfortunately," Hubert sighed as he scratched his head, "They seem to not be making any headway without me so I'm going to see what I can help with. I'll be out till late so just stick dinner in the fridge for me, would you?"

"I don't know why you're asking since that's what happens every night lately," Adam shrugged as his father left the three boys alone and drove away.

"He seems nice," Nino piped up after a moment of silence. Adam just sighed as his dad's own energy seemed to just tire him out.

"The guy just said he's planning on putting laser cannons in here and you call him 'nice'. What does 'mean' look like to you?"

"Chloe probably," Adrian answered for his friend.

"Dear lord, I don't even want to know what _she's_ done if she qualifies. Anyway I might as well show you guys around though there's not much yet," Adam led the guys through most of the house but like he said, there was only the basics since they were still moving in. Piles of boxes littered the floor and the smell of freshly dried paint filled the house even with most of the windows open. When they walked into the living room, Nino's eyes instantly caught something he liked. Next to the TV was a guitar case. Nino ran over and picked it up before turning to Adam, who didn't look too happy about it.

"Crap, I left that out in the open? Oh, right; I wasn't planning on having guests today, was I?" Adam sighed as he walked over to Nino.

"You play?"

"Yeah but… I don't like to," Adam said as he took it from Nino and set it back down against the wall.

"Why not?" Adrien asked as he walked over from the doorway. He happened to notice a white and brown spotted cat lying on the couch. The collar around his neck read "Bobbers".

"Primarily since my mom made me learn how to since she wanted all her children to learn how to play an instrument though she didn't ask us if we even wanted to or what we wanted to play."

"You have siblings?" Adrien inquired as he was petting Bobbers.

"Two sisters but they're both about ten plus years older than me so I have seen them personally in a while," Adrien couldn't help but noticing the sadness in his voice when he said that.

"Sorry I brought it up," Adrien apologized though Adam didn't seem to want him to.

"Hey, don't feel bad about it," Adam said, quickly waving it off. "It's not like you would have known. Oh and rub Bobbers' ears. He loves that," Adrien acquiesced and sure enough, Bobbers' purring became louder as he leaned into the ear rub. Victor quickly ran over to get some love too which Nino gladly gave to the attention hungry hound.

Nino returned the subject back to why they came over: to have some fun. "So where are your games?"

"Should be in that box over there," Adam pointed to a box in the far corner marked "Adam's gaming crud". "But before that, I think I want to show you guys something else before we relax since I know once we sit down, none of us are _really_ going to want to get back up again." Adam quickly took the duo up to his room on the third floor. Adrien didn't get time to take a look at the mostly empty dark green room as he was quickly herded through by Adam before he opened up a door to the roof. They were now inside the greenhouse that Adrien saw earlier and like most greenhouses, the humidity was pretty high even with panels on the ceiling open.

"Welcome to Dunn Right Gardening's greenhouse!" Adam enthusiastically introduced them to his greenhouse. The greenhouse was full of tables of pots filled with topsoil and little flags stuck in each pot showing what's growing in them. Adrien and Nino noticed the variety of plants being grown from ferns to herbs to flowers and vegetables.

"Oh, that's the logo written on the back of your jacket, right?" Adrien remembered from earlier back when he was Cat Noir. Adam quickly spun around to point at the logo.

"Yep! It's a business I started back in the states and brought it with me to France."

"You started your own gardening business?" Nino asked as he looked at a lot of the plants he had started on.

"I basically grow the plants to be sold if they flowers or non-edible plants but I'm also growing some vegetables here to so I can sell those as well and if they don't sell then it's something we can take off our grocery list so it's not a complete loss," Adam explained as he showed the two around. He pointed at a staircase as well that led to the bottom floor and was sealed off with a chain door and the same security pad from the front door as well as a chain lock.

"I take it this is much more interesting to you then the guitar then," Adrien remarked, remember Adam's contempt for the instrument earlier.

"Well, I actually picked to do this so, yeah, I find it a bit more enjoyable than something that starts to hurt my fingers if I play for more than half an hour. Anyway, I thought this would be cool to show you guys. Especially since I'm sure you'll both probably want flowers in the future for... reasons," Adam said with a wink, causing both of them to blush and chuckle nervously at the thought of giving flowers to Alya and Ladybug.

"Okay, enough talk about our love lives. Now we need to think about one thing: Who the best gamer among us is." Adrien said, getting his own competitive game face on.

"Now there's an important question and one that must be answered right now," Adam agreed as the trio hurried downstairs, all three of them failing to notice the small black box sitting on Adam's bed.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah 6000 words seems good enough. I was initially going to have everyone introduced at the beginning but figured that it would be long and boring to see 15 descriptions all at once so I'll properly introduce them as they become relevant. Also adding grave accents (`) is so dumb. Alt key plus random number code is just the stupidest.**

 **Hardest part to write for was the Agreste family meeting. It was hard deciding how to go about it. Took a week and a half just for that part alone because I couldn't write anything I was happy with.**

 **Also as a gamer myself entering the biggest release period of the year, I imagine my attention span is going to be stretched to it's limit. Also I've seen the new episodes of season 2 and I think I already know where I'm going to cut off into an AU but it'll be more apparent later.**

 **Fanfic-fan118: Thank you kindly and I will stride to not disappoint.**

 **Kmbrun: I've already talked about this with you in PM since I didn't want this taking multiple chapters to explain but I might as well say it for everyone else: I think that in Marinette's world, her hair is black to everyone else. From what I know about character design, straight black is very rare. It's almost always tinted to give it more depth and to make it look more impressive. Blue and brown are the most common tints for black hair as they look the most natural. Sometime's it's just completely replaced instead of tinting (though this is more common in 2D animation as black hair looks like ass in 2D even with tinting). I think the main reason Marinette's hair is so blue to us is because she needs to stand out. She's the hero after all. I once saw an interview with a member of the staff working on Yugioh Arc V on how all of the character's hairstyles might seem bright and colorful to us, but in their world, they are visually the exact same color because WE the audience need to identify each character easily.**

 **Now I just need to find a picture for the story. That'll be fuuuuuuuuuuuun... Till next time, Sal out!**


	3. Timeout

**Ch. 3: Timeout**

A few hours later at the Le Grand Paris, a white limousine pulled up to the curb in front of the four story hotel. As a butler quickly moved to open up the door, shouting from inside could be heard from anyone who happened to be within ten feet or so. Which turned into about two hundred feet when he opened up the door and two people stepped out. One was a fuming Chloe in the middle of a bad day, the other was her ever faithful orange-haired accomplice.

"I think you should calm down, Chloe," Chloe's friend suggested, concerned that maybe she's overreacting.

"Do _not_ tell me to calm down, Sabrina! You know that makes it worse!" Chloe retorted with all the restraint of a starving uncaged animal as she stormed into the regal looking hotel and into the elevator with Sabrina and the butler following suit. "That kid thinks he can just walk into _my_ town and talk to _me_ like that in front of everyone, including Adrien! I couldn't even enjoy my spa treatment and that makes me even more angry! When Father hears about this, he'll be running back to the States in fear!" Chloe rattled off as the elevator reached the fourth floor.

"Madame Chloe, perhaps you should calm down. You might draw another akuma to yourself or worse… have another acne breakout," The mild-mannered butler reasoned, which actually got Chloe to calm down but only just.

"Fine… but I'm not finished with him! He will learn his place!" As Chloe stomped into her own private suite, the butler turned his attention to Sabrina.

"I take it there's more to her frustration than just one boy causing problems for her?"

"I don't know, honestly," Sabrina answered with a exasperated sigh. "If there is, she isn't saying anything about it. But if I had to guess, it's probably because she feels like she's not getting enough time with Adrien. He was gone for most of the summer with his father and now thanks to Nino, he's already made friends with the new kid that called her out," The butler listened intently to Sabrina's guess before a smile took to his face.

"I think I know how we can remedy that. Would you keep in an eye on her while I'm gone," The butler asked as he made his way back to the elevator.

"Sure; leave everything to me!" Sabrina agreed with a salute before running in after Chloe.

* * *

"Thanks again for helping me with my errands, Amara," said Alya appreciatively with bags on her arms. The two were holding various bags from a few stores. Groceries, odds and ends like toys and candy, even some red and black fabric. Amara wondered if she's got a party or something coming up though it was hard to focus her thoughts when she had about six bags to carry and some were partially obstructing her view so she needed Alya for more guidance than before.

"It's no problem but I feel like maybe you should have told Marinette so this would be more manageable," Amara wheezed out from behind the bags she was carrying.

"Yeah, it slipped my mind because of all the craziness that happened today. Hawkmoth returns after after a few months of silence and then we get two new students. Needless to say, I probably should have written a note or something," Alya sheepishly replied before continuing, "Alright, now I've got to warn you; I've got sisters and they can pretty hyper around my friends when I bring them over so try not to let them get to you," Alya warned as she and a slightly exhausted Amara walked up to the Cesaire family's house which was an impressive two story home which Amara would never have guessed from the more casual way that Alya carries herself.

"You make it sound like coming here was probably a bad idea," Amara quickly replied as she continued to examine the house with its brick and tan siding as well as the flower boxes hanging from all the windows.

"Only if you turn out to be horrible with kids. In which case: be terrified," Alya replied in a over-the-top dark voice as if she was trying to make Amara laugh at the pale imitation of scary she was performing.

"I'm terrified," Amara dryly remarked as she watched Alya set her bags down in front of the garage door to unlock it.

"Oh come on, girl; you can't be _that_ bad at it. I mean, I've seen Marinette try and babysit so I have a point of reference on 'bad with kids'," Alya commented with a chuckle as she opened the garage door. She peeked her head inside to see it empty, much to her delight.

"Coast is clear," Alya waved for Amara to follow as she picked her bags back up. Amara walked in and was greeted with the oh so pleasant smell of oil and gas. The garage looked relatively empty with just a tool bench fully stocked with various tools for car repair and more, a few storage lockers for whatever else and a dim overhead light that seemed like it was due to be replaced.

"So I take it we're hiding your "supplies" in here?" Amara deduced as she watched Alya unlock one of the storage lockers.

"Well, I'm not leaving them where they can easily be gotten to by others," Alya replied with a smirk. "We'll leave everything but the groceries in here for now. Can't have _them_ be too suspicious as to why we've been out so long," Alya and Amara dropped off every bag that wasn't used for groceries before locking up the locker and heading inside, making sure to use the front door.

"I'm home!" Alya yelled out after walking through the doorway and Amara could faintly hear two sets of footsteps quickly moving towards them. Alya was suddenly ambushed into a hug by two near-identical little girls who only came up to around Alya's thighs. The only thing that Amara could tell apart was that one had a pink striped shirt and shoes and the other had a blue striped shirt and shoes.

"Hey sis, what took you so long?" the teal one asked.

"You hanging out with Nino?" the pink one joked.

"Well, I was hanging out but not with Nino," Alya said as she pointed to Amara who gave a small smile and waved. "Amara, these are my sisters Ella and Etta," Alya introduced the teal one and pink one as Ella and Etta respectively.

"Well, aren't you two adorable," Amara said as a larger smile took to her face, clearly enamoured with the cute twins.

"You'll be changing your mind in about twenty, maybe thirty minutes when they annoy you to death," Alya joked.

"Alya, she's kind of creepy," Ella spoke to her sister, causing Alya to have to stifle a chuckle at Amara's deflated face.

"Yeah, why are all your friends so weird?" Etta joined in, causing Amara to look almost heartbroken and Alya to almost lose it.

"Now you two, where are your manners? You have to be nice to the guests, no matter how creepy you think they are," Alya reprimanded before shooting the unamused Amara a wink. "Anyway, run along you two, we have work to do," Alya ordered as the two ran off to resume whatever they were doing before.

"You got something to say to me, Alya?" Amara asked with a glare and a slight smirk as she tried to stop herself from being upset by the twins calling her creepy. Alya turned and walked towards the kitchen while whistling a guilty tune along the way. Alya and Amara put the groceries away quickly before moving towards Alya's room.

"Sorry about that. It probably wasn't best to joke about you like that when we've only met today," Alya apologized which made Amara sigh.

"It's fine but those two were pretty harsh and you encouraging them wasn't helping,"

"Yeah, they may take after their big sis a bit too much," Alya replied with a sheepish shrug. "Though I was only chuckling because I wasn't expecting them to be _that_ blunt," Alya said as she opened the door to her room which immediately told Amara what kind of person Alya was.

A superhero fangirl.

Lining the red walls of her room were various posters for famous comic superheroes with the two biggest were posters of Ladybug and Cat Noir stuck to her ceiling above the bed. There was a desk with a mirror and a computer and the few only non-superhero picture in the room of Nino, her boyfriend, Marinette, her class picture, and a family picture with another sibling.

"You're sure into superheroes, I see. I wasn't expecting you to be such a fanatic," Amara quipped, now her turn to embarrass Alya, which seemed to slightly work but Alya remained her cool.

"Don't act like that's a bad thing! Paris has two great superheroes in our town so it's only natural that I'd be a fan,"

"Okay but that doesn't really explain all the other posters," Amara pointed to one of a buff and handsome one with a smirk.

"Oh hush. I need to update the Ladyblog," Alya brushed off Amara's comment as she hopped onto her computer and plugged her phone into it

"Ladyblog?"

"You haven't heard of the Ladyblog? Looks like my reach hasn't hit Japan yet," Alya sighed in disappointment. Looks like she wasn't as big as she had hoped. "Okay so I run a blog about Ladybug and all the crazy things that happen. Though I often get caught up in the craziness myself, that only means I have footage no one else does," Alya explained to Amara who could only raise an eyebrow at how Alya can be proud of putting herself in danger repeatedly to run a blog.

"There must be an easier way of going about that," Amara pointed out, concerned about what kind of person Alya must be to do something insane like that.

"Well yeah but sometimes you just get pulled into the fray and there's nothing you can do but hope that maybe you'll be of some help. I have actually been of help a couple times so I do feel like I could be of assistance if I had powers like them," Alya's desire to help seemed to resonate with Amara and she would have to keep that in mind for later. She could be useful.

"Anyway, so what exactly did you need all those party supplies for?"

"I have two parties to plan: One for my sisters, which is next Thursday, and one for Adrien Agreste, Nino's best friend, which is this Saturday."

"Why are you planning Adrien's party?"

"Because his father sure is hell isn't!" Amara was taken aback by the abrupt change in Alya's tone, which Alya quickly corrected herself on. "Sorry. It's just that Adrien's dad is a bit… no, a lot of an ass and he won't let Adrien have a birthday party so Nino asked me if I'd plan one for him. Nino says he'd do it himself but he sucks at managing things so he figured I be a better pick for party planner like I don't already have two sisters to plan for and HEY!" Alya caught two sets of spying eyes from the doorway which quickly ran down the hall. "Must I lock you two in your room because I will! What did I say about spying?!"

"We just wanted to know what you were doing," Ella sheepishly answered

"Yeah, we didn't mean to spy," Etta added though it didn't settle Alya down.

"First you two make fun of my friend and then you start spying on me planning your party. You two are going to sit in your room until Mom and Dad get home.

"What?!" Ella shouted while Etta just shrugged and started to her room.

"Now, Ella!" Alya commanded as the other twin shuffled into her room before shutting the door behind her.

"Don't you think you're being a bit harsh?" Amara asked, clearly concerned with her friends outburst.

"Yes, but I tell them that spying is wrong because I don't want them to end up like me where I spy on most of my class trying to figure out who Ladybug and Cat Noir are. It'd would turn them into creeps!"

"So, you're a creep then?" Amara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly!" Alya replied with a nod before they headed back into her room.

As the twins sat in their rooms, the two looked at each other from their beds. Etta being calm about being grounded while Ella seemed more enraged by it, with a scowl affixed to her face.

"Why am I being grounded?! I didn't do anything!" Ella angrily questioned her sister like she had the answer.

"Well, you were helping me figure out what Alya's trying to do. Besides it's just for tonight. It's not like we were planning anything," Etta explained, hoping to calm her sister down.

"My show was on tonight and now I'm going to miss it!"

"So? Catch it some other time or watch it on the computer. It's not the end of the world. Besides, maybe Alya will let us off the hook when she's done doing… whatever and she's calm down," As much as Ella didn't want to admit it, Etta was right but that was little consultation. "What show are you so worried about?"

"It's a show about Ladybug and Cat Noir!" Ella replied, her inner fangirl showing, "It was going to be about everything they've done since they appeared and even about the history of them!"

"Okay that's pretty cool, but still, it's not like they won't ever show it again," Etta conceded, but still didn't see it as getting worked up about. Etta rolled onto her side away from her sister as she attempted to just nap until Alya said they could come back out, leaving Ella with her thoughts. Unfortunately, her thoughts had attracted unwanted attention.

Across the city in an unknown location, a man stood in a pitch black room, waiting for someone with enough negative emotions to be subjugated to do his bidding. As the feeling of anger for being wrongfully punished filled him, a giant metal screen opened up to reveal the orange light of the late day sun into his room as hundreds of butterflies swarmed around him. The man was dressed in a silver mask, purple suit with a silver butterfly brooch near his collar and a silver cane in his left hand.

"Ah, a child can be so easy to upset as to them, all molehills become mountains. They are perfect for my akuma!" The man held out his hand as a butterfly landed into it before he covered it with his other hand and coated the butterfly in darkness before letting the darkened bug fly out the window. "Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize her!"

As Ella sat staring at her feet, waiting to be let free from her room, she hear a slight flapping sound but before she could do anything, the akuma had entered her right earring, causing a pink-colored butterfly symbol to appear in her face.

"Timeout, I'm am Hawk Moth. You've been imprisoned unjustly and for that, I'm giving you the ability to punish others as you yourself have been punished. All I ask in return is for you to bring me Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculouses!"

"Now it's my turn to be in charge!" Ella replied as she was covered in a mass of dark magic before being transformed into a villain dressed in a orange dress with her brown braided hair turned black and her eyes turned to a steely green. Her right earring turned into almost like a ball in chain.

Etta, hearing a commotion behind her, looked to Ella but only saw Timeout and promptly regretted turning around before being zapped by the villain that was her own sister. She was then turned into a small orb of light for easy transport.

"Now for Alya," Timeout floated out of her room and down the hall before kicking the door in and wasting no time zapping Alya and turning her into a ball of light as well. She then turned to the shocked and almost defiant Amara who prepared to force her way out. Timeout's features then softened as if Ella hadn't changed. "You stood up for me so I'll let you go as thanks." Timeout then busted through the window with another blast before flying off into the evening sky with the two light orbs in tow.

"Well quite a predicament, eh Amara?" Amara heard a male voice coming from her hip pocket. Out popped a purple kwami with bat wings connecting his arms and legs as well as two large ears on it's head. It looked at her with wide eyes with gigantic irises that take up the whole of his eyes with very small pupils.

"Save the jokes, Voidd because they're not funny," She then turned her head so her batwing hairpiece was facing Voidd. "Voidd, wings out!"

* * *

Ladybug continued to swing around the town but didn't really know where she could go for something like practicing being Ladybug. Eventually finding herself on a rooftop overlooking the Louvre, she quickly expressed frustration with the current predicament.

' _Maybe Tikki has some advice…'_ Ladybug thought as she quickly hid herself from sight behind a nearby vent and transformed back to Marinette, leaving Tikki to pop out of her earrings and land in her hand.

"Done training already, Marinette?" Tikki inquired as they'd been transformed for a couple hours now.

"More like haven't started. I swung all over the city and ended up at the Louvre looking for a place to train before I realized that I have no idea how to even train being Ladybug. I've always played it by ear up to this point so it's not like I even know where to begin with this," Marinette moped as her kwami looked at her with a mixture of acceptance and understanding.

"That's actually pretty common. Most Ladybugs tend to not know how to train by themselves unless instructed by an actual master," Tikki replied after poking Marinette's nose.

"You mean Master Fu, right?"

"Well, yes, but as I hope you remember, we're not to rely on him. We're to only go to him if it's a dire emergency,"

"Me being awful at my job isn't considered an emergency?"

"You're not awful at your job, Marinette!" Tikki refuted sternly, not willing to hear any self-deprecation on her watch, "If anything, you've only gotten better! If you allow yourself to feel bad over one mistake, training might not be what you need. As long as you keep your head up and believe in yourself, I know you'll make everything work out fine!" Tikki's encouragement seemed to resonate with Marinette who seemed on the verge of tears because of the nice words.

"Oh, thank you, Tikki," Marinette said as she nuzzled her kwami who hugged her cheek.

"Now, we should probably head home. It's unlikely we'll be getting anything done swinging around town tonight if we don't even know a good place to-"

"Help, akuma!" Tikki was cut off by the sounds of citizens scurrying like roaches when the lights come on.

"Another one?! Ah come on!" Marinette sighed as she picked herself up from a seated position.

"I need a cookie!" Tikki cried out as Marinette quickly rummaged through her purse for a snack for Tikki to eat. She quickly handed a Tikki the last cookie in her bag which Tikki tried to chow down as fast as possible while Marinette looked around for the akuma. She saw people running around but couldn't see anyone in a tacky outfit doing magic. Eventually she heard a child's laughter from above the Louvre courtyard and instantly found her akuma. She quickly shot out four blasts to make a giant energy cage throughout the courtyard with lightposts serving as corners before making various citizens of Paris appear within, including Alya.

"Alya?! Tikki, hurry up!" Marinette turned to the kwami who was only half done so far.

"I can only eat so fast, Marinette," Tikki responded with her mouth full as she quickly wolfed down the rest of the cookie.

"Ella, what do you think you're doing?!" Alya shouted, being able to move herself again.

"Ella's grounded! I'm Timeout, and no one will punish me ever again!" Timeout replied before putting a roof on the cage, preventing anyone from being heard from outside.

* * *

Back with the boys who were knee deep in the gaming competition which seemed to be getting them nowhere closer to deciding who was the better player. Adrien flawlessly defeated Nino and Adam at fighting games which the two couldn't even come close to touching him. Nino did donuts around them in racing games, frequently besting them by half a minute, if not more. Adam, however, trick-shotted the two to death in most of the FPS games to the point that Nino at one point called Adam a "screen-peeking turd-waffle" which was the trash talk highlight of the night after Adam head-shot Nino from halfway across the map. They were about to try another game when their stomachs finally got their attention.

"Maybe we should actually eat something," Adrien suggested with a chuckle.

"Eh, you're a model. I'm sure you're used to starving," Adam retorted as he headed to the kitchen to make them something to eat.

"Oooooh!" Nino had to put his fist over his mouth for that one. "He's got you there!"

"Shut it," Adrien half-heartedly demanded but couldn't keep himself from smiling. "I eat a perfectly healthy diet, thank you kindly," Adrien corrected as he and Nino followed Adam to the kitchen.

"Speaking of eating, do either of you have allergies I should know about?" Adam asked as he was searching the shelves for something to make. Both shook their heads as they helped look for something they would want to eat. Adam's house had a good amount of food in it but they weren't sure what to make until they checked the fridge. "Oh wait, I did take out some hamburger for some stroganoff," Adam remembered as he pulled a bag of defrosted meat out of his fridge. "How's that sound?" Nino and Adrien looked at each other and shrugged.

"Sounds good to us," Nino replied

"We'll have to make sure to leave some for your dad, won't we?" Adrien asked before Adam and Nino both smirked at him.

"Do I hear disappointment? Did you want it all to yourself, Adrien?" Adam joked as he started pulling out a skillet to cook with.

"And you said you have a healthy diet. What's your calorie count? A thousand? Does your dad actually keep you fed and you've been starving all this time?" Nino continued as he patted Adrien's stomach.

"Quiet, you two! Enough about my diet already!" Adrien exclaimed, as he frustratedly pushed Nino's hand away, leaving his friend a chuckling mess.

"You're the one freaking out about it, bro," Nino turned to see a small TV in the kitchen and turned it on with it already set to the news.

 _"-a akuma is currently attacking the Louvre museum,"_ The news lady quickly informed her viewers, causing the three to look on in surprise. They looked at the footage to being shown to see Timeout had made an energy cage using the Louvre courtyard with a great deal of the nearby populace trapped inside.

"Another one already?" Nino thought aloud as he turned to Adrien and Adam. "It's like Hawk moth is trying to make up for lost time or something,"

"Is it a rare occurrence or something?"

"Well… no... It's happened before but usually there's a good deal of time between akuma attacks," Adrien explained as he rubbed the back of his neck. He looked back at the screen to see Ladybug already fighting the akuma as she's trying to imprison her as well. He had to leave. His lady needed her cat.

"Hey Adam, where's your bathroom?" Adrien asked, ripping Adam's attention from the TV

"Hmm? Oh, it's next to the staircase going to the third floor, can't miss it," Adam answered, not really noticing the oddly abrupt request as anything abnormal.

"Thanks!" Adrien thanked him with a thumbs up as he hurried to the bathroom, leaving Adam and Nino alone. Adrien quickly entered the bathroom and shut the door behind him before letting Plagg out of his jacket.

"Can't we sit this one out and just eat the food Adam's making?" Plagg pleaded, not wanting to actually doing anything.

"Yeah, no. Plagg, claws out!" Adrien replied sternly as Plagg just groaned as he was sucked into Adrien's ring, changing him into Cat Noir. He quickly opened the window in the bathroom before jumping out and making his way towards the Louvre as fast as he could.

Back with Nino and Adam who were still watching the news.

"He's probably going to be in there a while. When he's in the bathroom, it's like he's glued to the toilet or something," Nino joked with a shrug. Adam had to stop himself from recommending Adrien take some laxatives.

"So what's the deal with this Hawk moth guy?"

"He can make people into super villains so they can get some fancy magic jewelry called a "miraculous" which gives superpowers," Nino explained before being interrupted by his cellphone ringing.

"Uh oh, I was afraid of that," Nino muttered as he answered the call. "Hey Mom, what's up?... Yes, I know there's an akuma but I'm at a friend's house so… Yeah… Yeah… Okay… I'll be home as soon as possible… See ya soon mom," Adam just watched on as his friend got more deflated by the second like his mother was draining the life out of him from the other side of the phone.

"Let me guess, mom's a bit overprotective?"

"Well it's not without merit, I guess. Anyway, tell Adrien my mom's threatened to eat my face if I don't get home soon so she can see that I'm safe with her own eyes,"

"Do you want it said exactly like that or paraphrase it?"

"Both if you can manage to make it sound funny. Adrien will totally understand since his dad's way worse," With those words, Nino walked back into the living room and grabbed his bag before heading out for home. "Thanks for having me over and I'll talk to you tomorrow," Nino held out his fist which Adam returned for a fistbump before Nino walked downstairs and out the door, leaving Victor slightly sad that his new friend was gone.

"Hey don't worry buddy, you'll see him again," Adam reassured Victor with a rub of his cheeks. "How about a dog treat to cheer you up?" Victor, wasting no time, quickly ran up to Adam's room at the sound of dog treats with Adam following after his excited hound. Adam opened the door and walked to his nightstand to grab the bag of dog treats when he noticed a small black box with a symbol in red sitting on his pillow. Adam stared at the box for a good minute with questions flooding his mind.

 _'What is that…? Why is it here…? Did someone get through the security systems?! How; Dad was here all day!'_ as he pondered these questions, Adam reached out to pick the box up and opened it, only to have his eyes assaulted by a flash of brown light which rose out of the box before dimming and reforming a small brown humanoid being with it's small green eyes hidden behind fur, small claws around it's nub of an arm and a small tail behind it. It was greeted by Victor barking at it as hard as it could, making the blinded Adam wonder what had happened. Rubbing his eyes from the sudden bright light, stopped to see what had happened and was greeted by the sight of the being before him.

"You must be Adam," the creature said in a soft, feminine and dignified way. Adam just looked at it in stunned silence before he could finally work up the nerve to speak.

"What… what…?" Though it wasn't like what he could say was of any worth. He continued to stare at the strange being with confusion as to what it even was. The closest thing he could figure it to resemble was a weird mole fairy.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not here to harm you. My name is Terra, a kwami, and you have been chosen as my new master," Terra spoke with a reassuring smile but Adam's brain still hadn't really caught up with the conversation.

"What? Kwami? Master? What?"

"Oh no, it's going to be one of _those_ candidates, isn't it?" Terra muttered to herself as Adam immediately refocused his brain on the implied insult.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means you're a bit slow, aren't you?" Terra replied with a smirk, having now gotten a coherent response out of the boy.

"What?!"

"My point stands and will you please silence the mutt," Terra pointed to Victor who was still barking as the conversation was going on. Adam quickly wrapped his hands around Victor's body, quieting the hound to just growling.

"Why are you even here?"

"I was given to you along with my miraculous by my former master because he deemed you "worthy" of it," Terra answered with sarcastic air quotes as Adam remembered what Nino told him earlier and took a bronze bracelet with a green gem embedded into it out of the box. "Though I still fail to see how one deed is enough to make one worthy of my miraculous but I have no say in the matter so I'll just go along with it."

"So this is a miraculous? This is the thing that Hawk Moth is after?"

"Oh you already know? Well, he's not after that one specifically. He wants Ladybug and Cat Noir's. They have the ones he really wants," Terra explained, returning to the tone she had before that wasn't bashing Adam.

"So this gives superpowers, right?" a hesitant Adam asked as Terra nodded.

"It will transform you into a superhero and grant you a weapon and a once-per-transformation power called Earth Shatter which will power up your punch but starts a five minute countdown before the transformation wears off. To transform, simply say my name and 'rock out'. Not my idea but what can you do?" Terra quickly ran down what the miraculous will do to a very conflicted Adam.

"Superpowers. Being a superhero. Fighting evil and oh crap the akuma!'

"There's an akuma? Well what are you waiting for?"

"What, no! I can't just run out there and fight a supervillain! The Louvre is a half hour away by car!" Adam tried not to let the obvious fear in his voice creep out.

"Sure you can!" Terra rebutted, equal parts encouragement and annoyance. "Just say 'Terra, rock out' and you'll transform. After that, all the basic knowledge of what you can do will instantly be granted to you so you'll be able to get there much faster!"

"That's not the point! Basic knowledge is all well and good but it's still the bare basics. It's not like I've ever received training in fighting where I could die!"

"You could've also died earlier today when you were almost hit by a car saving Cat Noir," Terra countered, causing Adam to reflex in surprise. "I get you're afraid, but you don't have to fight to be of help. There's probably something you could do that isn't fighting," Adam thought for a second and then remembered that everyone was being held in a giant cage at the Louvre. He could run in, help those people and then leave the rest to Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Adam looked at the miraculous in his hand for a few seconds before putting it on, with Terra giving a smile.

"Terra, rock out!"

* * *

 **A/N:Yeah I stay up till 6 in the morning. What's it to ya? I've come to the conclusion I'm crap at villains. Oh well, I'll just do my best and hope for the rest. Also I guessed which ones are which with the twins so if I'm wrong, oh well.**

 **Does anyone know how to spell "miraculouses"? My instincts say it's spelled that way but my computer says it's spelled "miraculeuses" because the latter is the french way of spelling it. Apparently the former is how to spell it in English but it annoys me so can someone just tell me.**

 **No reviews from last time. That makes me sad…**

 **Let me know what you think! Your opinions are important to me as it helps me grow as a writer.**

 **Next time, we have a fight at the Louvre.**

 **Till next time, Sal out!**


	4. Terrifying Power

**Ch. 4: Terrifying Power**

Cat Noir raced across the windy rooftops, occasionally having to use his staff to helicopter over the large gaps between buildings and over streets before finally reaching the Louvre where he could see Ladybug and Timeout facing off. Cat hissed in frustration as he took in the fight and it became clear to him that Ladybug was at a disadvantage. Timeout kept as high up as possible while Ladybug could only get as high as the nearby rooftops and trying to grab with her yo-yo didn't help as the distance was too far to get a shot that Timeout couldn't dodge.

"Looks like this one's going to be a pain if we can't get close,"

Once Ladybug took cover behind a building, Cat quickly moved to join up with her, careful not to let Timeout know he was here yet.

He eventually caught up to Ladybug who was using buildings for cover with her back turned to him and she didn't seem to notice he was here. He smirked at the opportunity before him and quietly made his approach.

"Good evening, My lady!" Cat greeted suddenly, causing the antsy Ladybug to nearly fly out of her costume but not scream out.

"Cat! Don't scare me like that!" Ladybug angrily responded as she punched him in the shoulder, causing cat to wince. "Now is not the time for your games!" Cat rubbed his shoulder as he tried not to laugh and give themselves away to the flying Timeout nearby.

"Sorry, but you shouldn't be so focused on what's in front of you that you don't check behind you," Cat advised, though it looked like Ladybug wasn't in the mood for his "advice". "Anyway, what's the plan?"

"We need to get to her earring. I'm sure that's where it is. The problem is that I can't get high enough to get to her.

"So, we need to bring her to us. In that case, I'll distract her so that she'll take her eyes off you, then once she's too busy shooting at me, you lasso her down to Earth," Cat explained his plan with a smile that made it seem like he thought he was super smart for coming up with it. Though Ladybug was starting to have déjà vu because of it.

"Cat, that's the same plan we tried this morning and it didn't work and you almost got turned into a hit and run victim. It's not going to-"

"Look out!" Ladybug was interrupted by Cat Noir knocking her out of the way of Timeout firing at them but that didn't save Cat as the next thing he knew, he was surrounded by fifty or so people inside the orange energy prison. "Ah… damn it!" Cat quickly ran over to the walls before putting his hand on it and receiving a good jolt for his efforts. "Dah! It'll hurt but Cataclysm might work…wait…" Cat looked at the shield a bit closer before realizing that the shield was dual layered as the energy flowed in two directions. Even if he could take out one of them, there's nothing he could do about the other one. Though he just sighed at the obvious: Of course, it would be designed to make sure he stayed inside. Desperate, Cat grabbed his staff before taking a heavy swing at it but the shield laughed at his attempted and just bounced the force back on him, knocking him over onto his back. "I don't know what I was expecting to happen..."

"Not going to work, is it?" Cat looked up to see Alya looming over him as he sat up.

"Nope. Cataclysm only works on the first thing I touch and since there are two walls in front of me, I can't get us out. At least not from this end anyway. Might be a different story if I was on the outside since I could just Cataclysm one wall, go recharge real quick and then get rid of the other one... maybe,"

"Well, I'm sure no one will tell who the great Cat Noir is," Alya joked, knowing that wasn't going to happen.

"Yeah, it's not like it's the most newsworthy story in the world or anything but nice try," Cat quickly rebutted before returning to thinking up a plan of attack to get out. Alya nearby just sighed as she looked at her sister and Ladybug as they continued their fight.

"It's my fault that Ella's doing this," she sadly mumbled to herself but Cat heard it anyway. He thought of asking her about what happened but stopped himself short. There was a time and place for it but they needed to focus on getting out first.

"We all make mistakes, Alya. Just try and make sure that your sister knows you're sorry after this is over," Cat remarked, cheering up Alya a little before they both heard a noise to their right and saw a boy in a mole costume standing outside the barrier.

* * *

A little while before, back with Adam, who was staring at himself in a mirror he had in his room. He was now wearing a brown skin tight full-body jumpsuit with a hood over his head with huge awkward looking paws and claws attached to it. He had a brown domino-style mask over his face and his Miraculous had expanded slightly to look more like a small bracer then a bracelet. Adam stared at his reflection as it was the first time he had seen a mirror before with shock and awe. After a minute or so, he suddenly remembered why he put the get-up on in the first place and ran out to the greenhouse.

"Okay, so I need to get there quickly… what can I do?" Adam began to scan his brain for anything new that might help him leave before finally coming up with something by looking at his paw with two words appearing in his mind.

"Grappling hook?" he muttered to himself before he looked up to the open ceiling of the greenhouse. He moved his arm to point one of his claws at it and fire a claw with a wire attached till it wrapped around the support of the open panel on the ceiling. It then quickly pulled him up faster than he could react. So fast in fact, that before he could grab the top of the ceiling to pull himself up, he instead bonked his head on the plane of glass and crashed through a table below, knocking plants and topsoil everywhere.

"Wow, that hurt… Wait, why doesn't that hurt as bad as it should?" Adam sat up quickly before noticing that despite bashing his head into double-paned glass at about twenty kph and falling five meters and going through a table covered in ceramic pots, he didn't really feel any pain. "When she said it would transform me, I didn't think it would make me as hard to hurt as a freaking demigod! How durable am I… How durable is Cat Noir?" Adam immediately though as he realized that if he could survive something like this with little pain, Cat could probably take a car to the face and survive pretty easily. He didn't even need to do the one thing that got him this magic bracelet in the first place. With that new reality now established, Adam, now aware of how powerful the grappling hook was, got to the roof of the greenhouse without difficulty. But now he had a new problem. He was about four stories off the ground. Adam took a peek over the edge of the greenhouse and the realization of how high he was up nearly caused him to fall over onto his butt.

"Okay… I can probably survive that if I fall but still…" Adam swallowed his fear before using his grappling hook claw to get from roof to roof on his way to the Louvre, unsure if he was even needed at all.

* * *

Ladybug, now down one Cat Noir and up one pissed off little kid with superpowers, was now back to square one as she bounced from rooftop to street and back again. Without even someone to provide a distraction, she couldn't get close as her skillset wasn't really built for anything that had enough awareness that getting close was a bad idea when you can just shoot lasers to capture your opponents and deal with the rest later.

"I have to use Lucky Charm if I'm going to win-"

' _You can't'_ Ladybug heard in her head, as her own self-doubt started to pipe up after what happened earlier with her Lucky Charm sprung to the forefront of her mind, distracting her enough to nearly get hit by Timeout. As Timeout continued to get closer and closer to capturing Ladybug, she failed to notice what was above her head.

"I've got you now, Ladybuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuug!" Timeout shrieked as a sudden weight fell on her shoulders and dragged her down to the ground. Ladybug turned to see a girl trying to wrestle and pin down Timeout in the street below. She was wearing a purple and gray flight suit with bat wings connected to her arms and body and a matching batwing hairpiece. Timeout managed to sneak out from under her assailant and quickly fired a volley of shots that failed to make their marks but helped put distance between her and the bat that dropped out of the sky who also had to make a retreat while under fire.

As Timeout tried to regroup from her fall, Ladybug just stared at what she was looking at. Another Miraculous. Someone with another Miraculous had just appeared and was helping her. While she was busy processing this, the bat-girl quickly flew over to her.

"Hello, Ladybug," she greeted to the stunned Ladybug with a formal, dignified tone. A bat-themed Miraculous. That wasn't one of the one's that Master Fu had showed her so… where did this girl come from?

"Who are you? Where did you get that Miraculous? Why didn't you get her earring?" Ladybug demanded as she prepared herself of anything. She didn't need another Volpina incident with someone claiming to be on her side.

"As to who I am, you can just call me Bat for now," Bat answered in a stern tone "As for the other two questions, I didn't know the akuma was in her earring so I didn't think to grab that and finally, you can ask Master Fu later. He needs to talk to you and Cat Noir as well as a certain someone else," Bat pointed to across the courtyard where a kid in a mole costume was currently planning something as he stared at the energy cage while trying and failing to stay hidden from sight. "It looks like he's trying to free Cat Noir and the others so I say we buy him the time he needs. After that, the four of us can work to take the akuma down."

Ladybug had a hard time processing everything. Two new Miraculouses that she's never seen before or even knew they existed. She shook her head to put it aside for now. She was going to need to speak with Master Fu later at the behest of this stranger that appeared out of the sky anyway so it wasn't worth racking her brain over it now when there's a crazy little girl out for their Miraculouses.

"Just 'Bat', huh?" Ladybug asked allowed as it was the easiest thing to start with.

"Look, I'm not interested in coming up with cute hero names. If you want a better one, make it yourself," Bat replied with an annoyed glare, "Now, are we doing this or not?"

"Alright, but just so we're clear, I don't trust you," Ladybug said with her determination returning. She didn't know if that mole-looking guy was really on her side or not but she had to buy him time to get Cat out. Deep down she was praying she was wrong as she quickly swung away to draw Timeout's attention away from the cage.

"I'd be surprised if you did," Bat stated to herself as she took to the sky again, hoping to get close enough to get the akuma.

* * *

Down at ground level with Adam in a mole costume as he hid behind a corner watching and waiting for Timeout to be distracted with Ladybug and Bat before running over to the cage, only for his footsteps to immediately alert Alya and Cat to his presence, blowing any chance of a quiet getaway after freeing everyone.

"Who are you?!" the two spoke in stereo as Adam just stood there with equal parts shock and stage fright as now he had to actually explain something. On Cat's end, today was turning into a strange day. First Crossguard, then Timeout, then the bat-girl fighting with Ladybug and now this guy in a mole costume. _'What hole are these people crawling out of?!'_

On Alya's, she was on the edge of entering Squee Mode at the sight of more superheroes. She was honestly hoping more would show up and form an awesome super team.

"Um… Uh…" Adam stuttered as he tried to think. _'I didn't think of a name?! Great job, Adam, you absent-minded nutty bar! Of course, they'd want a name!'_ Quickly trying to conceive of a name, he quickly rattled off the first thing out of his mouth without actually thinking about it. "I'm… I'm The Mole!" Mole said with a vaguely heroic smile hoping to project something resembling confidence before his eyes widened as his brain registered what he just said. _'WHAT?! "The Mole?!" Did I get brain damage from that fall?!'_

"'The Mole', huh?" Cat snickered with an amused smirk. "So, you've got a Miraculous too?" Cat quickly surmised.

"Yeah, I'm here to get everyone out, so if you could tell everyone so they'll be ready to run that'd be great!" The Mole, now returning his brain to the problem at hand, quickly explaining his half-plan, half Indy ploy.

"I'll get right on that!" Alya agreed ecstatically as she ran around to tell the fellow prisoners the plan.

"I don't know how you're going to do that. The thing's electrified, impact resistant and Cataclysm won't work since its double-layered. What are you going to do?" Cat asked with genuine curiosity, causing Mole to survey the shield before noticing that the corners were made out of light posts that were shielded on the inside, but not the outside. He could still hit those from his end.

"I'll punch that light post which might take the shield down," Mole answered, hoping his plan wasn't a dumb one.

"You'll punch it? You got the muscles for it?" Cat raised an eyebrow at the claim. Now that would be a sight.

"Don't worry. I've got muscles on my muscles," Mole said as he flexed his bicep, feeling less like a dork now that he had a claim he knew he could back up. _'I just hope this will actually break the barrier.'_

Mole walked over to the light post and steadied himself. "You might want to stand back in case of shrapnel," He warned Cat but to be honest, even he didn't know what was going to happen when he tried out his new powers. "Earth Shatter," Mole said quietly as a ball of dark brown energy gathered in his right palm before he crushed it in his hand. He then looked at the post, wound up and punched it as hard as he could.

That light post had no chance in hell.

It didn't stay where it was. It didn't get knocked over. It didn't even snap in two. No, that post was uprooted so fast that Cat couldn't even see it happen before it went flying by him and taking out everything in its path, uprooting all the other light posts in the line before finally crashing into the Louvre building on the other side of the courtyard in a tangled heap of wrecked metal and torn wiring. The barrier disappeared a moment after as the post used for a corner was now gone. Cat was impressed as he took off to help Ladybug, Alya was in joyful awe at the power of The Mole, the crowd of other prisoners just took the chance to leave as fast as possible, scurrying like roaches when the lights came on, except for Etta who stayed with her big sister.

Mole, however, just stood there, still as a statue at the path of destruction left in his wake. Mouth agape as he stared at his right hand in absolute terror at the power he wielded. He could feel his eyes start to burn from unshed tears of fear as he began to shake uncontrollably. Terra said it would power up his punch and, yeah, that's a pretty accurate description of what just happened but all Mole could think was that the power he had was not meant to be used by _anyone, ever_. Mole was so out of it in terms of what was going on around him that he didn't even notice that the sound of him trashing the barrier had attracted Timeout to him.

"You let them out?! You'll pay for that!" Timeout pointed to fire at Mole who didn't even seem to be aware that he was being threatened. Alya wouldn't let her sister capture anyone else as she pulled Mole out of the way as the blast missed them both. Mole suddenly realized that he's still in the middle of a battle with an akuma and quickly pushed Alya off of him as he hightailed it, not emotionally able or willing to keep fighting. Ladybug and Bat quickly seized on the distracted Timeout and moved in to attack as Bat carried Ladybug on her back and a Ladybug printed blanket in her hands before Ladybug jumped off towards Timeout. Timeout noticed it this time and moved to fire at Ladybug but before that could happen…

"Space Control!" Bat shouted as Ladybug and Timeout were quickly bathed in light before teleporting to the other's old position, disorienting Timeout long enough for Bat to land on her, wrap her in the Ladybug themed blanket made by Lucky Charm, and rip the earring off to throw it to Cat Noir.

"Cataclysm!" Cat exclaimed as the turned the earring to dust, allowing the akuma to escape. Ladybug quickly captured and purified it before using Miraculous Ladybug to fix all the destruction that was caused and returning Ella back to her normal state.

"Where am I?" Ella asked before quickly being pulled into a hug by her sisters. Bat, mission complete, quickly took off before anyone noticed her leaving Ladybug and Cat Noir with the Cesaire sisters.

"Pound it!" the two said in unison before Cat looked around for The Mole and Bat but couldn't find them.

"Where'd they go?" Cat questioned as he wasn't paying attention. Ladybug remembered that Master Fu wanted to talk to the four of them so maybe he went on ahead now that the jobs done. She quickly got close to Cat so Alya wouldn't hear them.

"Cat, can you meet me back here in a half-hour?"

"Sure, but why? You want to spend more time with your favorite cat?" Cat suggested with a smirk that he hoped to God was suave. To the sighing Ladybug, though, it was just annoying.

"Yes, because I have nothing better to do with my evening," Ladybug dryly snarked while giving an unamused glare. "Look, I can't explain with Alya around so just trust me, okay?"

"Oh, you know you'll always have my trust, Bugaboo!" Cat replied but was largely ignored as Ladybug quickly took off for home to get more cookies for Tikki to eat. Cat, realizing that Adam and Nino were probably wondering what was taking so long, quickly made tracks for Adam's house.

"Ella, I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier,"

"I'm sorry too, sis. I shouldn't have listened to that Hawk Moth guy," Ella apologize back as tears began to form.

"How about I make it up to you both. You can help me plan your party with me so that we can make it perfect for you! How's that sound?" Alya purposed, causing the twins to nod in agreement. As the siblings reconciled, a car pulled up to the curb of the sidewalk before two adults stepped out, one being a rather unkempt man in a Hawaiian shirt and the other being a petite woman in a chef's outfit.

"Mom, Dad!" Alya cried out as the two parents quickly rushed over.

"Are you three alright?!" Alya's father spoke first as he pulled his daughters into a bear hug of his own with the worried mother joining in.

"We're fine. I just made a mistake and made Ella mad but now everything is alright," Alya reassured them but they didn't really care for reassurances. They just wanted to hold their daughters close until they themselves could be sure that everything was alright.

"Just promise me that you won't scare us like that, okay?" Alya's mother asked

"We promise, mama," the three sisters replied together, hoping it was a promise they could keep but Alya knew she wasn't going to.

* * *

Speaking of Adam, he was in the middle of a mental breakdown in the kitchen. Trying his best to distract himself with cooking dinner and putting some pro wrestling on TV to distract his mind from the destruction he caused with Earth Shatter. Terra, however, just watched him from a distance as she nibbled on a baby carrot that Adam gave her. When his mind finally was able to process coherent sentences, he turned to Terra.

"When Adrien leaves, you're taking me to see whoever gave this to me," Adam ordered as he pointed to the Miraculous bracelet.

"Oh, I won't have to," Terra remarked as she took another bite of her carrot.

"Why not?" Adam asked, suspicious as to what Terra was alluding to. Adam then heard a horn beeping from outside.

"You'll see soon enough," Terra replied as she polished off her carrot and hid inside Adam's windbreaker, just in time for Adrien to leave the bathroom and enter the kitchen.

"Sorry about that. I think I might need to go to a doctor soon," Adrien quickly apologized bashfully at having left Adam waiting. Adam quickly took a deep breath to steady himself. He had to keep his mind in the present so Adrien doesn't suspect anything.

"C-constipation?" Though the stutter wasn't helping.

"Yeah, that. Anyway, it sounds like my ride's here so I'll have to pass on the dinner,"

"T-that's fine, it's... not like I'm holding you hostage or anything," Adam joked as Adrien quickly grabbed his stuff and went to leave before giving Bobbers one last pet goodbye. "See ya later, Adam!"

"See ya!" Adam yelled from the kitchen before waiting for the door to close. He finished cooking dinner before putting a lid on the skillet and turning off the heat. He went to turn off the TV before he heard footsteps upstairs, causing Victor to start freaking out and barking like a mad dog as he ran towards Adam's room.

"Ah, looks like she's here," Terra spoke as she left the jacket and headed towards the upstairs with Adam in pursuit.

"Who's here?" Terra stopped just short of the door to Adam's room before turning to him.

"The person who picked you, of course," she said as she flew through the door, surprising Adam as quickly opened the door to see quite a sight. Terra was now sitting in the hand of Bat from the battle earlier.

"You… Why are you here?!" Adam asked, wondering if he was so bad that his cover was figured out in less than fifteen minutes.

"Good job tonight, Adam," Bat congratulated with a warm and slightly proud smile, "You didn't do too bad for your first time with the mole Miraculous. You were even able to draw her attention away from us so that we could ambush her so you even helped fight the akuma too. I knew I was right in picking you,"

"Wait, back up a bit! You gave me this?!"

"No, but I saw what you did this morning and thought you'd be a decent candidate on short notice. You're a bit of a coward but the fact you showed up at all makes it clear what kind of person you are," Bat pointed out rather bluntly like Adam wasn't already aware that he ran from the Louvre like he just raided the place, burned it to the ground and was attacked by the police. Adam just stood in silence as he thought about what Bat was telling him.

"He zones out a lot, I swear," Terra whispered to Bat before she flew over to him. "Hey, numbskull, time to go," Terra ordered insultingly, seemingly the only way to break Adam out of his trances. True enough, Adam instantly caught back up at the offense that Terra threw at him.

"Go? Go where?" Adam asked, not quite sure what she meant.

"You wanted to meet Master Makizou, the one who entrusted you with your Miraculous, no?" Bat answered before opening the door to the messy greenhouse. Adam looked at the bracelet for a moment in contemplation.

"Why don't you just take this to him? I don't need to meet him," Adam offered as he prepared to take off the bracelet.

"He would like to meet you though. I'm sure you've got a lot of questions for him to answer and he's got a few for you as well," Bat replied with her back to him before stepping out and jumping up and out of the greenhouse, waiting on Adam to come along. Adam looked at Terra who gestured towards the door, making it clear she was on Bat's side and believed he should go too.

"Terra, rock out…" Adam muttered, defeated at this point and having no real choice but to go along for the ride till this Makizou person finally gives him the out he's looking for.

* * *

Ladybug quickly landed on the roof of her house just in time for her transformation to run out, causing her earrings to spit out an exhausted Tikki.

"Sorry for overworking you today, Tikki. Three transformations in one day can't be good for you," Marinette looked over Tikki with concern as she placed the weakened kwami on the pillow of her bed. Tikki tried to say something but was just too tired to be able to work up the effort before Marinette ran down to grab something for her to eat, running into her parents.

"There you are, honey. We called you down for dinner a while ago but you weren't in your room. Were you on the roof?" Sabine asked motherly, wondering where her daughter had run off to.

"Oh, you know, I was just struck with inspiration for some designs and needed the air. Sorry to worry you," Marinette gave Sabine a hug and a smile to show that everything was fine.

"It's okay, sweetheart, we know how you get when you're working. But you really should eat something," Tom said as he put her dinner in the microwave to heat it up for Marinette. Marinette grabbed a few cookies as well, before winking to Sabine.

"Just be sure you eat those last. You need good food for energy,"

"But, your cookies are good food since they taste so good!" Marinette joked as she faked an attempt to eat one right away, only for Sabine to rip it from her hand.

"Dinner first, dessert later," Sabine said with a smile before sitting down on the couch to continue watching the news about what happened at the Louvre. Marinette grabbed her dinner and a cookie for Tikki and headed upstairs to eat.

When Marinette got to Tikki, she saw that her kwami was lost in thought as she laid upon the pillow.

"You okay, Tikki?" Marinette asked as she passed over the cookie which Tikki began to make short work of.

"Marinette, can you tell me in detail what happened? I've only got a few snippets since I can't see through your eyes," Tikki asked in a serious tone, one Marinette didn't see every day.

"Of course, Tikki," Marinette acquiesced, before going in depth about all that had happened while she was transformed, from the difficulty with Timeout to the arrival of a person calling herself "Bat" and another in a mole-themed costume with one hell of a haymaker. Tikki listened intently to everything Marinette said, only taking a brief moment to take another bite of her cookie. When Marinette finished her story, she took note of Tikki's expression, one that Marinette had _never_ seen before: a look of dread.

"I'm… concerned…" Tikki spoke after swallowing a chunk of the cookie, trying to underplay her true feelings. "The mole and bat Miraculouses… they shouldn't be here," Tikki's voice was low and dark, making Marinette instantly uncomfortable as she tried to eat her own dinner.

"They shouldn't? What do you mean, Tikki?" Marinette was starting to get worried. Tikki's never been this serious.

"Something really bad is going to happen, Marinette..."

* * *

After being taken home by the Gorilla, Adrien went up to his room without any resistance from his father or Natalie, causing Adrien to assume that they're busy at the moment. Adrien quickly ran into his room but knew he wouldn't be staying long. Adrien quickly pulled out a piece of Plagg's favorite cheese but Plagg didn't immediately attack it with the same vigor that he normally does.

"Okay, what's up? Normally, you would have inhaled that block of cheese in the time it would take me to blink and now you look like you don't know what to do with it," Adrien asked with a confused look but when his kwami looked at him with a serious face for the first time since Adrien had met Plagg, Adrien knew something was terribly wrong. Plagg flew over to his cheese but didn't immediately eat it.

"What happened out there, Adrien?" Plagg asked in a concerned tone, worrying Adrien even more.

"You don't know?"

"Only little pieces. I only slightly aware of what's going on around you when you're transformed, remember?"

"Fair enough, I guess," Adrien quickly went over the main bullet points, not really sure what the big deal is other than there being more superheroes. He talked briefly about the fight but he made sure to put more focus on the bat girl who helped Ladybug with beating Timeout and "The Mole" who set him free from the energy cage. He then explained that Ladybug wanted to meet him back at the Louvre later but she didn't elaborate on what. After the story was finished, Adrien looked at Plagg who's expression hadn't changed and the cheese was untouched the whole time but the fact that he was taking anything seriously, _in the presence of Camembert, no less,_ made Adrien feel like he had no idea what he was talking about.

"Adrien, I think I know what Ladybug wants but just so we're clear, you should take everything said to you as important," Plagg warned as he began to eat his Camembert with his usual feral ferociousness that Adrien came to expect from Plagg, causing Adrien to recoil in surprise. First off, Plagg shouldn't ever tell someone else to take things seriously so if it's bad enough that _Plagg_ is willing to be a hypocrite over it, then it was clear that dark days were ahead of them.

"I will, don't worry about it," Adrien reassured Plagg who didn't respond and just kept eating, knowing that Adrien wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Elsewhere in Hawk Moth's chamber, Hawk Moth is staring out his window as his butterfly finally made its return and landed in his hand.

"So, we missed two of them, I see. No matter, I've already got enough of what I need from them to make my move. I just need to distribute my new resources," Hawk Moth then opened the communicator in his cane. "Immortal, you may move forward with the next step,"

"About time. I was starting to wonder what was taking so long. Picking some good ones shouldn't be hard though if you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them," A male voice with a Japanese accent came through the other end.

"Oh, believe me, I do! I'll contact you soon with a list of names of potential candidates that I've picked up over the last year. The usual suspects if you will. Till then, make sure no one knows you're here. If they find out before we're ready to strike, it'll be hard to recover in a timely manner."

"Understood," The voice affirmed before hanging up, leaving Hawk Moth alone in his dark chamber, grinning at the thought of his next plan to take the Miraculouses.

* * *

 **A/N: So fair warning, next chapter will be very explanation heavy since it'll be the biggest set-up of the story. After that, we'll be putting more focus on certain characters so look forward to that as well.**

 **One review this time:**

 **Kmbrun: I'm glad to hear it but it seems like I can still be a bit clearer on some things like what Terra is supposed to be. Idk, I came up with the description while I was looking at a picture of a mole so I thought it was close enough. Oh well, it was easy enough to fix. I suppose.**

 **So yeah, next time we lay a lot of things bare that will show how this story is going to go down so look forward to it.**

 **Sal out!**


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